Amite officer charged with 8 more arsons
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HAMMOND — Fire investigators linked a previously arrested Amite police officer also serving as a Roseland volunteer firefighter to all 14 arson fires set in the Amite area since Nov. 29, the State Fire Marshal’s Office announced Wednesday.
Suspended Police Officer Lee Widas, 23, of Roseland, was booked on eight additional counts of arson Tuesday and Wednesday in the Tangipahoa Parish jail, according to a statement the Fire Marshal‘s Office issued.
State fire officials first arrested Widas on March 8 when fire marshal investigators saw him near a vacant house set on fire just prior to the dispatching of the volunteer department, the state fire marshal said in a written statement.
At that time, Widas was interviewed by investigators and arrested on six counts of simple arson, state fire officials said.
The additional eight counts came after two days of interviews with Widas in a joint investigation that included the State Fire Marshal’s Office, Tangipahoa Parish Fire District No. 1 and Amite Police Department, said Fire Chief Bruce Cutrer of Fire District No. 1.
Widas was linked to the additional deliberately set fires after investigators reviewed information on the incidents and Widas’ methods of setting fires, Cutrer said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Widas was on duty with the Amite Police Department when the Amite Fires were set and off-duty with the Roseland Volunteer Fire Department when the Roseland fires were set, state fire officials said.
Amite Police Chief Jerry Trabona was out of town Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
Cutrer said Widas was suspended by Trabona until the next Amite Town Council meeting, set for April 1, when Trabona is expected to ask the council to dismiss Widas.
The eight additional counts include two fires set at Amite Mayor Reggie Goldsby’s residence, one of which caused major damage, Cutrer and state fire officials said. Another arson incident destroyed a storage building on the Amite Elementary School campus and included a blaze that self-extinguished in a classroom at the same school, Cutrer said in a previous interview.
The other school fire was set in a trash can outside the principal’s office of Northwood High School, north of Amite on U.S. 51, Cutrer has said.
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